Hidden Valley Nature Center (HVNC) in Jefferson was never cleared for agriculture.

There are no stone walls, no cellar holes, nothing that would indicate that anyone ever tried to farm on the now contiguous 1,000 acres.

This is quite unusual in a region that was laced with farms within the past century. Although the property that now comprises HVNC has never hosted livestock or cops it has been an active woodlot for several generations. The first loggers to remove timber almost certainly did so with the help of draft horses.

Several generations after that initial cutting horse logging is returning to HVNC. HVNC will host a professional development week call the Northeast Biological Woodsman Week during which as many as five teams of horses and twice as many men will harvest a section of forest at HVNC. The loggers will be men and women from around New England who all have a keen interest in promoting the professional merits of using draft animals in logging operations and who are themselves professional loggers.

“This is modern draft powered logging,” said Carl Russell of Russell Forestry Services in Bethel, Vt. “Draft animals are a powerful and effective tool for getting very particular silvicultural results in a forestry operation. Sometimes machines are just not cost effective for the same results.” Russell is leading this professional development week.

The term biological woodsmen was coined by Jason Rutledge of the Healing Harvest Foundation in Virginia. Rutledge and others in the southeast hold a similar event to this in which the aim is to demonstrate the viability, and efficacy of using skilled draft animal practitioners to harvest wood and to demonstrate exemplary logging practices.

Visitors are invited to watch and learn from these loggers on Saturday, September 6 during the SWOAM/Tree Farm Field days, 8:30 a.m.-1 p.m. at HVNC. The event is completely free and will feature many demonstrations, displays, talks, and activities all related to Maine’s healthy forests. It is a family friendly day and will be followed, 2-6:30 p.m., by the annual Live Edge music festival.

HVNC is a nonprofit education and recreation center in Jefferson. HVNC hosts more than forty annual events related to nature-based education, sustainable forestry, and non-motorized recreation. Open to the public 365 days a year, dawn to dusk, HVNC features thirty miles of multi-use trails. For more information visit www.hvnc.org, call 207-200-8840, or write to info@hvnc.org.